


For the World We're Gonna Make

by NightCourt_HighLady



Series: A Court of Lyrics and Melodies [9]
Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 09:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17546843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightCourt_HighLady/pseuds/NightCourt_HighLady
Summary: Rhysand's life has been dark and cold for the past few decades. Until he has a vision of a pair of hands, painting a table, that gives him hope for a better world.Flashes of Rhysand's mind throughout the ACOTAR series.Songfic for A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman. I was listening to the version with Claire and Dave Crosby while I wrote this.





	For the World We're Gonna Make

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to everyone who's been through hell but hasn't lost that tiny spark of hope. Hang on.

Finally finally finally she left him alone. He lay on his bed, blankets covering his naked form, just for a moment before standing and making his way to the bathing room. Immersed up to his neck in bubbles, he finally feels safe enough to doze off just ever so slightly.

_ I close my eyes and I can see _

_ The world that's waiting up for me _

_ That I call my own _

It was going to be one of those nights it seemed. For the moment he closed his eyes, he was transported to that fuzzy world that wasn’t his own. That glimpse of the human woman through whose eyes he watched in his dreams.

_ Through the dark, through the door _

_ Through where no one's been before _

_ But it feels like home _

He didn’t know who she was, but he felt safe in her mind. He felt clean in a way he hadn’t felt in fifty years. He felt safe and cherished. He didn’t know her, or where she was, but he simply allowed it to happen. Those moments were keeping him alive, he wasn’t going to question them.

_ They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy _

_ They can say, they can say I've lost my mind _

_ I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy _

_ We can live in a world that we design _

Was he crazy? Was he insane? He wanted so desperately to love this young human woman in his mind. No matter the differences between them, he just knew in the bottom of his soul that she would never look at him differently for what he’d been doing all these years.

“Rhys.” But one lightly spoken word by Nuala shattered his moment of peace in the head of the woman. He shook the water out of his hair, knowing that there wasn’t enough sand in the world to scrub the taint of Amarantha out of his skin. 

But if that was what it took, that was what it took.

_ 'Cause every night I lie in bed _

_ The brightest colors fill my head _

_ A million dreams are keeping me awake _

Dressed in soft pajamas and laying alone in the blankets for once, Rhys allowed himself the momentary luxury of remembering those he left behind. Reminding himself why he couldn’t go seek the woman in his dreams (nonwithstanding his lack of power and the fact that she was human?).

There they were. Mor, Azriel, Cass, and Amren. His friends, his court, his family.

_ I think of what the world could be _

_ A vision of the one I see _

_ A million dreams is all it's gonna take _

_ A million dreams for the world we're gonna make _

And yet, when he fell asleep, he was back in the world of the woman on the other side of the wall: except for one difference. She was in Prythian.

For a single triumphant moment, he imagined it. He imagined taking the woman back. He imagined her coming north with him. Teasing Cass, bonding with Mor, watching Azriel, and bribing Amren.

But reality intruded. He was stuck here under this accursed Mountain, shackled to Amarantha, hoping that  _ Tamlin _ could get them out of the mess they were in. The Mother truly must have a sense of humor to force them all to depend on that creature.

_ There's a house we can build _

_ Every room inside is filled _

_ With things from far away _

Months and months and months have passed. He saw her, he knew her, he loved her. Feyre. Feyre who died and came back. Feyre who loved his greatest enemy. Feyre who was his mate. Feyre, Feyre, Feyre.

All he had was the bargain. 

He couldn’t bear to upset her delicate balance yet though. He could feel her on the other end of the bond now. He could feel her pain, he could see her puking every night, he could feel her nightmares (an almost welcome break from his own). But she still loved Tamlin. And he couldn’t bear to take that from her, she who had lost everything else.

Until the day that he heard her cry out for someone, anyone. He was so desperate to get to her that he almost forgot his persona.

_ The special things I compile _

_ Each one there to make you smile _

_ On a rainy day _

He felt her surprise when he sent her to the room he’d prepared for her a month before. An open, airy room, filled with things he’d gathered with hope she’d love them. Soft, loose clothing, a large, comfortable bed, a giant bathtub in which to soak. 

He didn’t want her to hate his homeland. 

He wanted her to fall in love with it

And with him.

_ They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy _

_ They can say, they can say we've lost our minds _

_ I don't care, I don't care if they call us crazy _

_ Run away to a world that we design _

That first night she was there, he sat up with Mor, listening for her. Wanting to go to her if she needed someone. Or at least be nearby. 

He ended up rambling on to Mor. Telling her about how skinny Feyre had become. How frighteningly unhealthy. He had vague memories of looking at Mor with tears in his eyes.

“How can he not see that she’s falling apart? Who looks at her and thinks she’s okay? Why is no one helping her?” She simply took his hand and squeezed it. Not having answers, just an attempt at comfort.

_ Every night I lie in bed _

_ The brightest colors fill my head _

_ A million dreams are keeping me awake _

She was now living here. With them. She was staying of her own accord. She was sleeping in the second room he’d prepared for her: the one in Velaris.

She’d finally left Tamlin.

She was here.

She was home.

Rhys closed his eyes to sleep but all he could see behind his eyelids was the vision he’d conjured so many months ago Under the Mountain, when Feyre was nothing but a distant dream.

The dream of folding her into his life here in Velaris. Into his family.

_ I think of what the world could be _

_ A vision of the one I see _

_ A million dreams is all it's gonna take _

_ A million dreams for the world we're gonna make _

His first feeling upon regaining consciousness was pain - his wings had ash in them and couldn’t heal. His second was fear - where was Feyre? His third was relief - because there she was. He’d never thought she was more beautiful than she was in that moment. Her Illyrian leathers crusted in dirt and blood, two makeshift ash daggers clutched in her hands, the blood of those Hybern Fae not yet dry on her boots. Yet her eyes were only for him. Her gorgeous grey eyes swept him, pinpointing the injuries, and narrowing in rage when she catalogued them.

And when, all those hours later, she turned her back on him and left him in the mud, he felt any hope he’d felt in that moment shatter completely.

_ However big, however small _

_ Let me be part of it all _

_ Share your dreams with me _

A week later he stood outside the cabin, wondering if he’d made the right choice. The door opened, and there she was.There was paint tucked up into her hairline, and the whole cabin smelled of the stuff.  _ She’s painting again _ . 

But that was only peripheral as he spoke to her and she decided to let him in.

Not just into the cabin.

But into her life.

He’d never felt as raw and broken as he did when he told her his story. His hands shook with fear, his eyes burned with tears of shame, rage, and grief both old and new. As he spoke, he heard the crack that had changed his life forever. The horror he’d felt when he’d felt her spirit separate from his. When he’d truly realized what he’d lost without knowing what he had.

He’d never felt as loved and seen as he did when she slid into his lap and told him she loved him. And that she was his. And that she was  _ honored _ to have him.

It was better than any of his hopes and dreams ever could have been.

_ You may be right, you may be wrong _

_ But say that you'll bring me along _

_ To the world you see _

_ To the world I close my eyes to see _

_ I close my eyes to see _

She was now his. Every fiber of her was his. The world could go to hell in a handbasket but he had found the soul that his had been searching for during these long centuries.

His heart was in the hands of a young once-human woman. A woman who had manage to transform from a hardened girl who killed a Faerie with hate in her heart to a powerful, strong Fae with the ability to change their world.

_ Every night I lie in bed _

_ The brightest colors fill my head _

_ A million dreams are keeping me awake _

_ A million dreams, a million dreams _

Rhys clutched his Feyre close to his chest. His Feyre. Through blood, pain, loss, and suffering beyond count. She was his and he hers. He placed his tattooed arm right next to her matching one. As she snored lightly, she snuggled closer to him, melting his heart yet again.

Even after all this time, it baffled him that she still chose him. That through the darkness and the pain that she’d suffered through her years, she still chose him. That in her sleep, she felt safest by his side.

_ I think of what the world could be _

_ A vision of the one I see _

_ A million dreams is all it's gonna take _

_ A million dreams for the world we're gonna make _

They spent Starfall at the cabin that year. 

Rhys brought Feyre up to the top of a mountain nearby, being extra gentle with the swell of her belly. The swell of their baby.

The two of them simply stood on the mountainside, watching the spirits travel. Feyre pointed out one that seemed to be going faster than the others. Rhys reached out to it with his power and felt its alarm. So he threw a blanket of power at it, slowing it as much as he could until it disappeared.

_ For the world we're gonna make _

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, I've been super absent recently. Real life has been a LOT. I just felt really inspired to write this.


End file.
